The A-Group consisted what is plavix 75 mg used for of 66 players, half of which were Azerbaijanis. The remaining half came from Belgium, China, France, Georgia, India, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Amongst them were 23 grandmasters, 2 super-grandmasters even. Etienne Bacrot and Rustan Kasimdzhanov to be exact.

Surprisingly, the ELO-favorites were nowhere near the battles for the top ranks. Though Kasimdzhanov showed no defeat on his account, he scored only 6 points due to many draws. Bacrot fought similar difficulties and even had to comply with a defeat against Pouya Idani. Former world champion Yifan Hou lost two duels and won five, and thus also collected 6 points only.

The favorited players’ weak performances were quickly taken advantage of by the opponents – in the end, Eltaj Safarli and Gadir Guseinov shared 1st rank.